Baseball plays eight games during break
The baseball team has witnessed an offensive explosion in its first seven games of the season.
Despite a 3-4 record, CMU has outscored its opponents 68-59. The team currently leads the Mid-American Conference with 68 runs and 77 hits.
The Chippewas will take their high powered offense back to Florida for the Central Florida Invitational. The team plays eight games during spring break, starting at 9 a.m. Friday against Northeastern.
"There are a lot of teams from all over the country who are going to be there," said coach Steve Jaksa. "And we thought it would give us some good matchups. It worked out pretty good."
Sophomore rightfielder Matt Faiman has started each game for the Chippewas and leads the team with a .462 batting average. Faimon has also drawn the most walks on the team with seven, leading the team in on-base percentage at .576.
CMU has three players with a batting average more than .400 and five players with more than .300.
"We still want to build a little more consistency," Jaksa said. "It is good we are scoring some runs. But we need to develop a more consistent approach. When our approach is consistent in each individual batter, then we have a very capable offense."
First baseman sophomore Casey Ingle has not been struck out in 19 plate appearances.
Freshman shortstop William Arnold has stepped into his role as the starter, leading the team with 10 RBIs.
"We think all of our guys have potential," Jaksa said. "Everybody is capable of helping us out in different ways. We have the ability to change up starters and lineups based on what we need to win the game."
Central has had three double-digit scoring games in its first seven. It took the team 18 games to get to the same mark last year.
Besides Northeastern, the team also plays tough teams in Bucknell and Ohio State during break.
"We are trying to see where we are nationally," Jaksa said. "We want to see how we match up with different leagues and then we will see that with all the different teams in Florida."
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